02.26.10
Posted in Photos, wedding at 7:00 am by delipics
Hair, a woman’s crowning glory, even more scrutinized on her wedding day.
How are you going to do your hair? This is maybe the third question to the bride, after where is your wedding and what does your dress look like. Do I want my hair up? Do I want my hair down? Then there is the bridal head piece; that too will determine the hairstyle. I spent time with Alex at Bride’s Head, trying on gorgeous after gorgeous head piece, visualizing the look I wanted. I went online and scrutinized all the suggested bridal hairstyles. Originally I wanted hair up, but BITB, I switched to hair down. I want to keep things simple and do my own hair. The solution - the perm idea. I thought a perm will give me the natural, wavy look I want without too much work on the day of the wedding, but I had a disaster perm experience to work through.
Perms were all the rage when I was in middle school - I desperately wanted one. So at 13 I got a home perm and the results were awful. It was puffy and unmanageable and just yuck. It took over a year to grow out and I vowed never to do that again. It’s taken over 25 years for me to get over it. Luckily, I go to a wonderful salon, Kiwa, and I knew if I was going to go the perm route I would be in good hands with the talented, friendly stylists and staff at Kiwa who helped me with my perm anxieties and talked me through it.
I LOVE IT! I got the digital perm. This perm is gentler on the hair and will last about a month. (These photos are about a week after I got the perm.) I have the loose, natural wave that I want without all the work. I like the look so much wish I had gotten a perm sooner. The other thing I discovered with permed hair is if I want more defined curls with the use of the curling iron, the curl lasts all day. All these things I can do with my hair now is like having totally new hair.
A perm is a whole new hair world of maintenance and product, thus another list to end today’s blog entry:
My Tips on Permed Hair Care
Wash your hair, at a minimum, every other day. The perm makes the hair drier so do not shampoo every day. I find that every two days is the best for me. Sometimes I just wet my hair thoroughly, towel dry, reapply product, and gently dry with the hair dryer or let air dry.
Brush your hair gently with a good brush. I have strong hair and I went at it with my brush as usual, only to find breakage. Now I take care to brush the ends first and make my way up to the roots. I use a boars hair brush that I’ve had for years. I also use a wide tooth comb in the shower, after the conditioner, to get the tangles out.
Moisturize your hair. I use two products: Shiseido Crystalizing Aquafix and Kerastase Serum Nuit. I got the Shiseido from Kiwa. I was originally using this when my hair was straight; it took the frizz out from blow drying and gave my hair a smooth finish. I tried it with my permed hair; it took the edge off the dryness and left my hair soft and wavy. I also let my hair air dry naturally with the Shiseido product, so that might have made a difference. A friend gave me the Kerastase and it’s fantastic! I use it once a week and my hair feels light, richly soft and full of body.
And when I want to kick the curl up, I use Deva Curl Set Up & Above. It holds the curl without the heavy product feeling and it has a fresh scent.
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02.24.10
Posted in Photos, crafty, wedding at 2:18 pm by delipics
Ah, the period film and it’s iconic images of a time long gone - tasks such as letter writing convey romantic pictures of quill pens scratching on parchment, the fine cursive writing, the sealing of the letter by the act of melting wax on paper and the final stamp of the signet ring with the family seal or monogram - it all seems tailor-made for today’s modern wedding invitations.
It seemed like a wonderful idea - why not using sealing wax on our wedding invitations? How hard can this be? It’s not like you need directions. All you need is the sealing wax, matches and the signet - in this case we chose the letter D for our first names. Wisely, I decided to practice on a sample invite before going for the real thing. Refer to the numbers in the photo for the real life, slightly enhanced for effect, description.
1. Why is this wax melting so damn slowly?! Where did all those black flecks come from? Crap, the letter D is reverse! Crap, crap, the flame keeps going out!
2. Okay, a little better, still those black flecks though.
3. I can’t get the whole letter D to show on the wax! This is seriously ticking me off.
4. Maybe if I hold the flame closer to the wax, the wax itself will melt faster. Oops, the wax stick is on fire . . . mmmm . . . maybe that’s okay, as long as it keeps melting . . . OHMYGOD, the paper is on fire! (Frantic blowing and yet I still still stamp the wax.) Time to reassess. I call my honey, “I don’t know if this sealing wax is such a good idea.” ”Wait until I get home and we can do it together.” ”I don’t know. I think I’m going to go to the store and look at stickers. Maybe we can just use stickers with out initials on it.” ”Wait until I get home.” “Honey, I’ve trying and the paper caught on fire!”
5, 6, 7 and 8 - Undaunted, after a snack, I try again. I’m improving but I’m not satisfied with the results. The sealing wax melts too slowly and starts to harden before I get enough on the paper to imprint with the D-seal. Plus, the black flecks are so unsightly. Is this what it was really like in the past? Did Jane Austen have to struggle with this fiasco called sealing wax? People must have been so thankful when the modern sealing envelope was invented, because this is ridiculous!
So it’s back to the store for me to look at stickers. The choices are limited - initials in silver or gold paper or cheesy wedding images like wedding bells, champagne glasses or doves. And then I discover the sealing wax gun! Aha! Works just like a regular glue gun, you use colored sealing wax sticks, and there are directions. Of course now I have a tool I’ll probably have no use for after this wedding and enough sealing wax sticks for the rest of the year (maybe I’ll seal my rent checks and credit card payments?) but it’s better than fire.
There are some lessons learned here and a hysterical story to share with friends.
My Wedding Invitations / Sealing Wax Tips
Definitely practice first! Because you need to see how much wax you need for your seal and you need to practice stopping the flow of the wax with flourish - not a messy lump.
Buy extra sealing wax sticks. We only had about 50 invites to send but I’m glad I bought the whole box because I wanted to practice, and I didn’t want to run out of sticks in the middle of the assembly. You go through the sticks pretty quickly.
Cool down the seal in the refrigerator/freezer and periodically put it back in to keep it cool. This was actually suggested in the directions but it recommended a cup of cold water. That just didn’t seem like a good idea to have water around paper goods - accident waiting to happen. It’s easier to just pop the seal in the fridge. The cold seems to help facilitate an easier, clearer stamped image and hastens the cooling of the hot wax.
Warm up the sealing wax gun for at least 5 minutes before you begin. Especially if you stop and begin again later, otherwise you initially squeeze out semi-melted wax that won’t really take the stamp and you will have wasted an invite.
Stand the sealing wax gun on waxed paper or scrap paper between stamping. It’s a low temperature glue gun so the wax doesn’t melt very quickly, but it will still drip on your surface, so protect your work table.
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12.31.09
Posted in Felt, Knitting, Knitting for Babies, Lace Knitting, Photos, Scarf, Sewing, crafty at 5:17 pm by delipics
It’s the end of 2009 and I’m finally getting to posting photos of the last three months of knitting projects. I admit, it’s been a skimpy three months, but I’ve been busy - more about that later.
I made two hats for Munchie’s birthday in November - the baby hat from One Skein by Leigh Radford and the pompon beret from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss. They match the ribbed sweater I made for her.
Above is the New Haven Hat from Twinkle’s Town & Country Knits. I was in the mood for a quick, fun knit. I made two changes - added a pom pom and altered the cabled brim. I knit the brim too long and instead of starting over, I overlapped the end. I might add a button to it.
Then I made some projects for Christmas gifts - knit and felt. I used stash yarn for this scarf to give to Oma - my honey’s grandmother - who is going to be 101 in 2010! I’m bummed because I forgot to take a photo of her wearing it. She looks great in orange.
Felt ornaments for my siblings - these were fun to make. I went to Pearl Paint’s craft store for the felt and while there found beads that say “Live” and “Love” on either side. The final ornaments are stuffed.
Like these - I made these for Munchie’s Christmas tree.
That’s it for 2009! Welcome 2010!
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10.23.09
Posted in Photos, Rhinebeck, Uncategorized at 12:30 pm by delipics
Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival 2009 - a very important question needed to be answered . . .
What do I have to do so I don’t have the same old photos of sheep and yarn? (Because I already have plenty of photos of that from past Rhinbeck trips.)
Answer: Raise the cheese factor!
I need me some lamb sausage!
Aaaaarumppphhh!
Wall-o-wool
I’m sporting Sarah Dallas’ seed stitch jacket, from the book, Scottish Highland Knits. I finished weaving in the loose yarns on the car ride up. It did keep me warm and cozy on that brisk, autumn day, but honestly, I don’t know if seed stitch jacket and I are meant to be. It’s really really REALLY big on me. I was aiming for an oversized look but I think I’m just swimming in it. You can probably tell in the photo.
One of the problems I have with sweaters and cardigans is the sleeve proportion. The armhole is usually too low or too big. I think it’s a combination of being petite and not really understanding the pattern adjustments I think I’m doing correctly, but actually I’m faking it and keeping my fingers crossed. Plus I’m not a math person. I keep hoping that one day I’ll just “get it” - either that or the fiber goddesses, for whom I have been leaving burnt offerings, will stop giggling at me and look kindly upon their faithful pilgrim.
Now where did I leave my burnt offerings?
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09.09.09
Posted in Photos, Socks, Travel at 5:29 am by delipics
I’m back from summer vacation. How was your summer?
No, I didn’t go any where exotic, but I was on vacation - a vacation from . . . knitting! (Only partially, as you can tell from the photo)! It wasn’t anything I planned, it just happened that way, and instead of guilting myself about it or forcing myself to pick up the sticks, I just went with the flow, which is what summer is all about.
You can see from the evidence it wasn’t a complete abstinence. I occasionally did pick up one project when my knitting girlfriends got together around a large pitcher of frozen margaritas. I finished this:
Gentleman's Plain Winter Socks
Ravelry link here, with more photos. This pattern is from Knitting Vintage Socks, by Nancy Bush. The yarn is Socks That Rock on DPN#1. I figured my honey deserved to have these done for fall - perfect for those weekend mornings lounging on the couch and watching the tube. He’s a patient guy, considering I started these in January!
End of summer also means summer harvest. On a visit to my parents, my father sent me home with these goodies from his garden:
Bounty from my father's garden
I knew we couldn’t eat these all so I embarked on a blanching/freezing project the evening we got home from our trip. Not the most fun project on a warm and humid summer evening, but I knew I wanted to freeze the green beans while they were fresh off the vine to capture all that summer goodness.
Fresh green beans
The colors of summer
These veggies look luscious. My dad grows the long string beans, in the background, for the Filipino dish, pinakbet. I should learn how to cook that dish, but because I don’t, I decided to cut the beans into bite-sized pieces. I blanched and bagged three quart-sized bags of cut green beans. On a cold winter day, I will take these green beans out of the freezer and cook them to remind me of summer.
Labor Day, the official end of summer, was spent visiting my favorite New Hampshire cutie:
Two New Hampshire cuties & a Brooklyn cutie!
Munchie keeps getting bigger and cuter. Three months ago she was just beginning to crawl. Now she crawls and can walk around while holding onto furniture or pushing one of her push toys. She’s sooo close to walking on her own.
Sunday, we took a trip to beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee. If you were on the East coast, you know it was a gorgeosouly blue and cloud-free weekend. The light is beginning to change, it’s quality almost brighter and sharper as the summer changes into fall. The leaves are still mostly green but if you look closely you can see flashes of reddish-orange popping up.
We went on a round trip boat cruise from end to end of the lake. The lake has hundreds of islands scattered about. This island caught my eye because it’s mostly house on this tiny island.
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The people who live here must wake up every morning extremely happy. (Although I wonder what they do if there’s flooding? ) It was a peaceful day, watching the water, the boats, and eating hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches. It was a pleasant way to say good-bye to summer.
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06.23.09
Posted in Cleo, Photos, crafty at 5:06 pm by delipics
I made two cards for the month of June - one for my sister’s birthday and one for Father’s Day.
This is my sister’s birthday card. This was geometrically fun to make - let’s see if I can describe the process. It was easy to measure and place the two L’s that went on the border of the card. Each successive L shape in the centers seemed to magically fall into place. I didn’t have to spend time measuring the paper to make the shapes fit. Looking at it now, it makes sense that the shapes were easy to fit together - repeating L shapes and all are one-inch in width - simple, right? I keep thinking there must be a mathematical equation that explains how this works or maybe a geometrical theorem. Hey sis, if you’re reading this, you know why all the L’s!
This is my dad’s Father’s Day Card. First I started with an idea of horizontal strips of varying widths. It felt masculine to me. I placed the strips on the outside edges, but as I came to the center of the card I realized I wanted to break up the middle. I thought changing the center would break up the evenness.
And one more photo just because I love my cat and she looks good in blue.
Still life of Cleo in Blue.
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06.17.09
Posted in NYC, Photos at 2:44 pm by delipics
Date night - dinner and a movie- and my honey had a great idea - going to The High Line at sunset.
It’s a gorgeous time of the day to go - you get the view of the sun setting on the Hudson while experiencing this new park. I’ve lived in the city for over twenty years and I haven’t been wowed by anything new in the city in a long time. Forgive the stream of conscious thoughts, here we go: Design-wise, I’ve never seen anything like this . . . it flows, it’s innovative, it’s smart, it’s people-centered . . . the landscape and horticultural design is inspiring, the plants are unusual and integrated into the whole of the park . . . connected to the history of the city . . . it’s broken up into wonderful mini-areas, the lounge seats, viewing spots, an art exhibition area, places to eat, a mini-stadium seating area . . . a new way to connect to the city/a new way to look at the city . . . a chance to see other architectural marvels . . . dare I say it, is this our generation’s Central Park, albeit on a much smaller scale yet accomplishing similar things?
Link to the entire set of photos here.
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Posted in Cardigan(s), Knitting, Knitting for Babies, Lace Knitting, Photos at 1:59 pm by delipics
Stick a fork in me!
Ribbed Jacket, unblocked in photo, from Debbie Bliss’ Special Knits book.
Ravelry link here.
Possible next project, baby blanket using the snowdrops pattern stitch.
Will I become a baby blanket?
And I’ve cast on for Ishbel, from Ysolda’s Whimsical Little Knits.
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06.03.09
Posted in Photos, crafty at 4:41 am by delipics
Earlier I posted that I made a craft resolution: I am going to make all my cards this year. To that end, I’ve been thinking about card design. I asked myself, “What is my design aesthetic? ” I started off with sketches of basic shapes, thinking I would limit myself to circle, square, or triangle. In the end, I stayed with squares and rectangles because I’ve always been drawn to a grid structure.
Here is my first card (mom’s birthday card), employing a simple grid structure and rectangular elements. The paper is the main focus. I bought a mix of oragami paper. I love the orgami paper patterns; they are so richly detailed. I also like using the background paper as a design element.
I had my “Aha!” moment for the next card (Mother’s Day) I created.
I have my design “musts”:
- Employ a grid structure
- Use variations of squares or rectangles
- Use the background paper as a design element in the overall design
- Use all the paper - in other words, no scraps! (This last bullet is the most important one to me.)
These are not design limitations but an opportunity to problem solve. It’s like a working on a puzzle - how do I make it all fit into a pleasing design? I like this new initiative of mine. I’m using parts of my brain I haven’t used in a while and it’s exciting to be creating in a new way.
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06.01.09
Posted in Knitting for Babies, NYC, Photos, Travel, Yarn at 6:22 pm by delipics
Out of all the months in the year, May is my favorite, and May 2009 was particularly memorable.
Wearing a feathered tiara should be mandatory daily wear, not just on birthdays! We’re at Gyu Kaku, one of my favorite restaurants, where the BBQ coals are hot and the peach/mango drinks just keep coming. I celebrated with close friends in the best way possible - eating!
My honey took me to see Guys and Dolls and Times Square for my actual birthday day.
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We sat fourth row orchestra, close enough to see the dancers sweat! D knew I wanted to see Guys and Dolls, not just because it’s a classic, but because I wanted to see the actress Lauren Graham, from my favorite tv show, Gilmore Girls. Lauren was Miss Adelaide - she was hysterical as the blonde showgirl and girlfriend of Nathan Detroit. Afterwards, we wandered around and we saw Angela Lansbury signing autographs outside of Blithe Spirit. The evening ended with shared slice of raspberry swirl cheesecake at Junior’s.
Elsewhere in the city - Knitta decorated Montague Street, Brooklyn.
Love these!
Hibernating on the knitting needles -
D’s socks decided to go on vacation. You know, it’s tough being superwash wool during summertime. They’ll be back soon, after a little R&R.
I went on a little R&R too, to visit this cutie! She is the happiest, smilingest baby in the granite state!
She’s wearing her handknit cardi from Auntie Delica - and the backview -
And another one of her posing on an exquisite, hand crocheted baby blanket made by grandma’s friend.
I went to the Mariposa Museum on my visit. The yarn paintings on view caught my eye.
And this is an embroidery from Vietnam. I wonder what the woman in green is doing?
Munchable is going to get a new hand knit sweater soon. (Can I add here that I have a new found respect for baby photographers? Babies move so fast, and all the time! Munchie’s mom took about fifteen photos, on the action mode of my camera, in order to get one good shot. The baby blanket poses were even more photos taken to get non-blurry pics.)
Which buttons do you like? The casual wooden or the metal with incised design? It’s a tough call.
Munchie’s going to look styling in her red ribbed jacket come fall.
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